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Lestat. The vampire hero of Anne Rice’s enthralling novel is a creature of the darkest and richest imagination. Once an aristocrat in the heady days of pre-revolutionary France, now a rock star in the demonic, shimmering 1980s, he rushes through the centuries in search of others like him, seeking answers to the mystery of his eternal, terrifying exsitence. His is a mesmerizing story—passionate, complex, and thrilling.

The Vampire Chronicles continue in Prince Lestat. Look for a special preview in the back of the book.

Praise for The Vampire Lestat

“Frightening, sensual . . . Anne Rice will live on through the ages of literature. . . . To read her is to become giddy as if spinning through the mind of time, to become lightheaded as if our blood is slowly being drained away.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Fiercely ambitious, nothing less than a complete unnatural history of vampires.”—The Village Voice “Brilliant . . . its undead characters are utterly alive.”—The New York Times Book Review“Luxuriantly created and richly told.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Speaking in Bones" by Kathy ReichsTemperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, finds herself drawn into a world of dark secrets and dangerous beliefs, where good and evil blur. Learn more | See related books

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After the spectacular debut of Interview with the Vampire in 1976, Anne Rice put aside her vampires to explore other literary interests--Italian castrati in Cry to Heaven and the Free People of Color in The Feast of All Saints. But Lestat, the mischievous creator of Louis in Interview, finally emerged to tell his own story in the 1985 sequel, The Vampire Lestat.

As with the first book in the series, the novel begins with a frame narrative. After over a half century underground, Lestat awakens in the 1980s to the cacophony of electronic sounds and images that characterizes the MTV generation. Particularly, he is captivated by a fledgling rock band named Satan's Night Out. Determined both to achieve international fame and end the centuries of self-imposed vampire silence, Lestat takes command of the band (now renamed "The Vampire Lestat") and pens his own autobiography. The remainder of the novel purports to be that autobiography: the vampire traces his mortal youth as the son of a marquis in pre-Revolutionary France, his initiation into vampirism at the hands of Magnus, and his quest for the ultimate origins of his undead species.

While very different from the first novel in the Vampire Chronicles, The Vampire Lestat has proved to be the foundation for a broader range of narratives than is possible from Louis's brooding, passive perspective. The character of Lestat is one of Rice's most complex and popular literary alter egos, and his Faustian strivings have a mythopoeic resonance that links the novel to a grand tradition of spiritual and supernatural fiction. --Patrick O'Kelley--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.

From Library Journal

Rice continues what promises to be a series with this fascinating sequel to her Interview with the Vampire. One of its characters, Lestat, encouraged by the telling of that story, narrates his own history, focusing on his boyhood transformation, subsequent wanderings, and constant attempts to rationalize his newly acquired immortality. Don't expect the usual stake-in-the-heart story; Rice is creating a new vampire mythos, mixing ancient Egyptian legends into her narrative, and weaving a rich and unforgettable tale of dazzling scenes and vivid personalities. This extraordinary book outclasses most contemporary horror fiction and is a novel to be savored. Highly recommended. Literary Guild alternate. Eric W. Johnson, Univ. of New Haven Lib., West HavenCopyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.

More About the Author

Anne Rice was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in English and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, as well as a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science. Anne has spent more of her life in California than in New Orleans, but New Orleans is her true home and provides the back drop for many of her famous novels. The French Quarter provided the setting for her first novel, Interview with the Vampire. And her ante-bellum house in the Garden District was the fictional home of her imaginary Mayfair Witches.

She is the author of over 30 books, most recently the Toby O'Dare novels Of Love and Evil, and Angel Time; the memoir, Called Out of Darkness;and her two novels about Jesus, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. (Anne regards Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana as her best novel.) ---- Under the pen name, A.N. Roquelaure, Anne is the author of the erotic (BDSM) fantasy series, The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy. Under the pen name Anne Rampling she is the author of two erotic novels, Exit to Eden and Belinda.

Anne publicly broke with organized religion in July of 2010 on moral grounds, affirming her faith in God, but refusing any longer to be called "Christian." The story attracted surprising media attention, with Rice's remarks being quoted in stories all over the world. Anne hopes that her two novels about Jesus will be accepted on their merits by readers and transcend her personal difficulties with religion. "Both my Christ the Lord novels were written with deep conviction and a desire to write the best novels possible about Jesus that were rooted in the bible and in the Christian tradition. I think they are among the best books I've ever been able to write, and I do dream of a day when they are evaluated without any connection to me personally. I continue to get a lot of very favorable feedback on them from believers and non believers. I remain very proud of them."

Anne is very active on her FaceBook Fan Page and has well over a million followers. She answers questions every day on the page, and also posts on a variety of topics, including literature, film, music, politics, religion, and her own writings. Many indie authors follow the page, and Anne welcomes posts that include advice for indie authors. She welcomes discussion there on numerous topics. She frequently asks her readers questions about their response to her work and joins in the discussions prompted by these questions.

Her novel, "The Wolves of Midwinter," a sequel to "The Wolf Gift" and part of a werewolf series set in Northern California in the present time, will be published on October 15, 2013. In these books --- The Wolf Gift Chronicles -- Anne returns to the classic monsters and themes of supernatural literature, similar to those she explored in her Vampire Chronicles, and tales of the Mayfair Witches. Her new "man wolf" hero, Reuben Golding, is a talented young man in his twenties who suddenly discovers himself in possession of werewolf powers that catapult him into the life of a comic book style super hero. How Reuben learns to control what he is, how he discovers others who possess the same mysterious "wolf gift," and how he learns to live with what he has become --- is the main focus of the series. "The Wolves of Midwinter" is a big Christmas book --- a book about Christmas traditions, customs, and the old haunting rituals of Midwinter practiced in Europe and in America. It's about how the werewolves celebrate these rituals, as humans and as werewolves. But the book also carries forward the story of Reuben's interactions with his girl friend, Laura, and with his human family, with particular focus on Reuben's father, Phil, and his brother, Jim. As a big family novel with elements of the supernatural, "The Wolves of Midwinter" has much in common with Anne's earlier book, "The Witching Hour." Among the treats of "The Wolves of Midwinter" is a tragic ghost who appears in the great house at Nideck Point, and other "ageless ones" who add their mystery and history to the unfolding revelations that at times overwhelm Reuben.

In October of 2014, with the publication of "Prince Lestat," Anne returned to the fabled "Brat Prince" of the Vampire Chronicles, catching up with him in present time. This is the first of several books planned focusing on Lestat's new adventures with other members of the Vampire tribe. When the publication of "Prince Lestat" was announced on Christopher Rice's "The Dinner Party Show," a weekly internet radio broadcast, it made headlines in the US and around the world. "Prince Lestat" debuted at #3 on the New York Times Best Seller list and ran for nine weeks during the height of the competitive Fall-Winter season, with another week on the extended NYTBSL. ----

Anne's latest novel, "Beauty's Kingdom," is the fourth in her "Sleeping Beauty Erotica Series," and the first to be launched in hardcover. Though the first three novels were published in the 1980's under the pseudonym, A.N. Roquelaure, the name, Anne Rice, was added to the series in the 1990's. About her erotica, Anne has this to say: "I believe in the erotic imagination. I believe men and women have a right to write and read erotic fantasies. My goal with the "Sleeping Beauty" books is to provide the most authentic erotica that I can for those who share BDSM fantasies."

Anne's first novel, Interview with the Vampire, was published in 1976 and has gone on to become one of the best-selling novels of all time. She continued her saga of the Vampire Lestat in a series of books, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles, which have had both great mainstream and cult followings.

Interview with the Vampire was made into a motion picture in 1994, directed by Neil Jordan, and starring Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas. The film became an international success. Anne's novel, Feast of All Saints about the free people of color of ante-bellum New Orleans became a Showtime mini series in 2001 and is available now on dvd. The script for the mini series by John Wilder was a faithful adaptation of the novel.

In 2014, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment optioned "The Vampire Chronicles" for a full reboot of the franchise.

Anne Rice is also the author of other novels, including The Witching Hour, Servant of the Bones, Merrick, Blackwood Farm, Blood Canticle, Violin, and Cry to Heaven. She lives in Palm Desert, California, but misses her home in New Orleans. She hopes to obtain a pied a terre in the French Quarter there some time in the near future.

Anne has this to say of her work: "I have always written about outsiders, about outcasts, about those whom others tend to shun or persecute. And it does seem that I write a lot about their interaction with others like them and their struggle to find some community of their own. The supernatural novel is my favorite way of talking about my reality. I see vampires and witches and ghosts as metaphors for the outsider in each of us, the predator in each of us...the lonely one who must grapple day in and day out with cosmic uncertainty."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

If Anne Rice had never written another book after "The Vampire Lestat," her reputation as a rare genius would have been created and sealed with this one novel.Unlike most Rice fans, I read this book first, and it has always been my favorite of all the Vampire Chronicls, much more so than "Interview with a Vampire."I cannot count how many times I have reread this book, and with each reading, I find a new richness, a new insight, a new awe-inspiring peak into the mind of a woman whose genius may be madness, but with whom I will gladly cross the line. (Case in point: This is the only book ever for which I stood in line for hours to have the author inscribe her name.)I won't belabor the plot here; it is simply too baroque to try to put into simple words. Suffice to say that, in the first person, we meet Lestat, the teenaged son of an impoverished 18th-century nobleman, whose life is at best cold and harsh, at worst, a constant battle with cruelty of every sort for one's mere survival. One particularly dark and fiercely cold night, Lestat, a beautiful young man despite all his hardships, is out with his beloved dogs, hunting wolves. Into the strange fog he rides...and when he first hears the deep, surreal, and otherworldly voice calling him..."Wolf killer, wolf killer," we are there with him. And we are by his side as he becomes, in a strangely but riveting erotic passage, one of the undead. A vampire unto eternity.All of Anne Rice's intensity, her eroticism, her love of history, her incredible sense of detail, and her dark view of the world is present in this book, much more so than "Interview with a Vampire."It is my suggestion that, if you want to sample Anne Rice, and have never read any of her works, this may be the book you want to read. And if you know Rice's works but not this particular novel, I urge you not to deny yourself another minute. This is truly one of the must-reads of one's life.

This is only my third Anne Rice novel though I have been a long time supporter of hers and a fan of her work. Having only recently read Interview with the Vampire, the first book in the Chronicles, I immediately wanted to read the next book, The Vampire Lestat. I'm so glad I did because it gave me a better understanding and a stronger admiration for Interview, of which I had somewhat mixed emotions about upon finishing it.

In The Vampire Lestat, we learn more about Louis's maker and get to enjoy a nice long tale of his life story. We open in the 1980s with Lestat in New Orleans taking an interest in rock music and becoming a vocal celebrity. He has even sought out the book, Interview with the Vampire, to read and has determined much of it to be lies so he needs to set the record straight by writing his own book.

From here, we spend a lot of time with Lestat as a human and get to study the close loving relationship he had with his mother. We meet his vampire maker, Magnus. We learn that Lestat loved the stage and we see the early development of what would become the Theatre of the Vampires which played such a crucial part in Interview. We witness Lestat's bond with Armand, the vampire who became the head of the theatre and learn a lot about his story and his creator Marius, who Lestat begins to obsess over. And Marius introduces Lestat to "those who must be kept," who are the king and the queen of all vampires. This sets the reader up for the next book in the series, Queen of the Damned.

Rice excels at classic story telling, but treats her readers to a historical saga of fine vampire literature. Unlike the vampires today's generation obsess over, who are either blood thirsty monsters or sparkling romantics, Rice suffers her protagonist with questions of existence, being, and soul. Hers truly are vampires that will live forever, both on the page and in the minds of her readers.

I first became involved with the Vampire Chronicles when I saw Interview with the Vampire six years ago. I loved the film and I really liked Louis, Claudia, and Armand. I HATED Lestat. I thought he was a evil monster with a black heart. I read Interview with the Vampire eight months ago and I still hated Lestat. I hated him so much that I skipped The Vampire Lestat and started reading Queen of the Damned. I saw the graphic novel of The Vampire Lestat in a used bookstore a month or two after I read IWTV and I looked through it. I was amazed at the beautiful artwork and I realized that there was more to Lestat than I thought. (He was not as evil as I thought he was before. He is good and evil. A living contradiction.) After I saw the Graphic Novel I saved my money and I bought it a few weeks later from the same store. I read the novel and I was completely blown away. It is PERFECT. It is dark and beautiful and it becomes very real as you read it. As you read the book Lestat almost makes you wish that you could be immortal. He also shows you that he is a complex character that cannot be labeled. (Most characters in movies and books are two-dimensional. They are either "Good" or evil" and that is what makes them dull. Lestat is everything and nothing and that is why he is fascinating.) Lestat is great because he is a perfect contradiction. (He is strong but he is weak. He is independent but he is dreadfully lonely.) I read TVL novel after I read the graphic novel and I now love the Lestat character. This graphic novel is impossible to find! It is out-of-print and it is VERY hard to find! You HAVE to buy this graphic novel if you have the chance. It will quickly become one of your most treasured items and you will be really glad you bought it if you are a Vampire Chronicles fan. If you don't buy it when you have the chance it will most likely become like the infamously insanely hard to find THE CROW graphic novel by James O'Barr. (A great book I would kill to have.)